Teen kills masked intruder who turned out to be his dad

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A teenager who killed his father on Tuesday morning will not be charged with a crime.

Malachi Heisler says he awoke on Tuesday to cries outside his bedroom door.

“I woke up to my name being called, okay. I heard the words,’Malachi’ and ‘Help.’ That’s all I heard when I woke up,” Heisler told WFTV.

When he got out of bed, he says he saw a masked intruder holding his mother at gunpoint.

“He pointed it at my mother first, and then when I came out of the room, he pointed it at me,” Heisler said. “He had his pistol and I had my rifle. It doesn’t matter, a bullet is a bullet. One shot, you’re dead.”

Heisler says he only had a matter of seconds to figure out what to do.

He says he had no idea who the man was until after he fired his gun.

At that point, Heisler says he recognized his father by tattoos and physical characteristics.

“He wanted to scare us first and then kill us while we were afraid,” Heisler said. “He wasn’t a good dad, no f******* father of the year awards.”

Heisler told WFLA that his mother had a restraining order against his father, who was arrested at their home in April.

After the shooting, the teenager was taken to police headquarters and questioned by detectives for hours.